Matthew pounding the NW Bahamas, heading toward Florida

Today's video:

Hurricane Matthew is strengthening this morning and will likely become a Category 4 hurricane sooner rather than later. The center will likely pass just southwest of Nassau this morning, and then approach the southeast coast of Florida by this evening. From there, Matthew will track northward very near the coast of Florida. For some areas, such as the Space Coast, this could be the strongest hurricane on record to impact that area.

Further north, Matthew will track very close to the Georgia and South Carolina coasts later tomorrow into tomorrow night. How strong Matthew will be at that time will depend largely on how much time the system spends over land in Florida. Due to the system essentially paralleling the coast, that's impossible to determine at this point. 

For the interior Carolinas, look for clouds to build later today with rain becoming increasingly likely tonight. I expect rain at times tomorrow and tomorrow night, then a drying trend by Saturday afternoon. Beautiful fall weather will then unfold Sunday onward. 

For the Carolinas coast, this will be worse for South Carolina than it will be for North Carolina. Again, how bad it will be will be determined by Matthew's interaction with Florida tomorrow.